I really had
that driven home for me as I was writing Writing Love (Screenwriting Tricks II). I made a master list of ten love stories in
different subgenres (in this case not always my favorites,
because I wanted to have a broad range of romantic stories for analysis and
discussion) and broke them down in depth to find the key story elements
specific to that umbrella genre. And oh, did it turn the lights on for me.

I’m going to
share some of those with you now, because whether or not you write romance or
romantic comedy, you’ll almost always have a love plot in your story, so it’s
useful for writers of all genres to be aware of common love story elements.

The following
are some scenes and setups that are very typical in romance and romantic
comedy. You can do a similar list of specific elements for any genre, and I highly encourage you to do so — it’s another way
to master your craft.

I’ve tried to
focus mostly on plot points or premises instead of just gags or bits — that is,
these are actual story elements that can help you build a story if you use them
wisely. And these elements will often overlap with the key story elements we’ve
been discussing: that is, the CALL TO ADVENTURE in a love story might be a case
of FATE INTERVENES; THE PLAN might be to PRETEND WE’RE MARRIED; THE HERO/INE’S
GHOST might show up at the MIDPOINT and radically shift the dynamics of the
story, and so on.

Now, any of
these love story elements can be done badly and devolve into the worst kind of
cliché. The point of knowing the common elements is to be aware they’ve been
done before and find your own unique ways of using them, if you’re going to use
them.

I’m not going to
waste time on the clichés, for which there probably is no hope, ever, but
here’s my own partial list of those clunkers, which I’m sure you can add to:

In a love story,
while the INCITING INCIDENT that starts off the story action may be a job
offer, a wedding invitation, a mis-booked hotel room, or any other inciting
incident common to any genre, the actual CALL TO ADVENTURE in a love story is
very, very often that first look at the beloved. This is why so often that
first look seems on the surface to be HATE AT FIRST SIGHT — it’s a variation on
the RELUCTANT HERO/INE (or REFUSAL OF THE CALL). When we meet that true love,
there’s often as much or more fear and panic involved as joy and relief. Life
is never going to be the same, and we know it.

LOVE INTEREST
INTRODUCED AS COMPLETE IDIOT

An example of
MISAPPREHENSION, which is a form of MISTAKEN IDENTITY. Bridget Jones’ Diary, New in Town.

THE HERO/INE’S
GHOST

In a love story,
the Ghost or Wound is most often related to love and attachment, obviously: the
heroine’s parents died when she was a child (The Proposal), the hero’s father has had a succession of failed
marriages (Made of Honor, You’ve Got Mail),
the heroine’s father was always chasing rainbows, impoverishing the family (Leap Year).

The Ghost often
comes out deep into the story in a confessional scene in which the hero/ine
reveals to the love interest WHY I’M LIKE THIS (often at the MIDPOINT), but
it’s generally better storytelling to dramatize it. For example, in You’ve Got Mail, when Tom Hanks’ father
leaves his much younger wife and moves in with Tom in his temporary crash pad
(boat), we see Tom realize he doesn’t want to be like his father and that he
loves Meg (which in this story is THE ACT TWO CLIMAX/REVELATION into the FINAL
BATTLE).

HANDCUFF THE
COUPLE TOGETHER

In Romancing the Stone, Joan needs Jack to
take her out of the jungle and back to Cartagena; Jack needs Joan’s money
because he’s just lost all the rare birds he was smuggling. In The Proposal, Margaret needs Andrew to
pretend he’s married to her so she won’t be deported, and she threatens him
with career annihilation if he refuses; Andrew agrees to do it if Margaret
promotes him and publishes a book he loves.

In Leap Year, Anna needs Declan to take her
to Dublin; Declan needs Anna’s money to save his pub from foreclosure. In What Happens in Vegas, a judge orders
Cameron Diaz and Aston Kutcher to remain married for six months if they want to
split the three million dollar casino payoff they won together. (This story
beat is also often an OFFER S/HE CAN’T
REFUSE.)

A common
variation on Handcuffing the Couple
Together is:

FATE (OR THE
WEATHER) INTERVENES

It’s amazing how
often romantic comedy uses this device. Fate, very often in the form of the
weather, prevents the hero/ine from leaving town (New in Town, Groundhog Day) or deposits them on the opposite side
of the country from where they are supposed to be (Leap Year) so that the hero/ine can meet his or her true love.

This is
especially well done in Groundhog Day,
as I talk about at length in my breakdown of
that classic film— I swear, those clouds are scheming.

THE OFFER S/HE
CAN’T REFUSE

A plot point
that usually comes early in the first act: the hero/ine is locked into a
situation because his/her boss or family or a judge gives them an ultimatum — e.g.
in The Proposal, if Margaret does not
fake a marriage with Andrew, she will be deported. Also see New in Town, Leap Year, What Happens in
Vegas.

MISTAKEN
IDENTITY OR FALSE IDENTITY

False identity was
a staple for Shakespeare’s comedies, and is still widely used in romantic
comedy, sometimes as a scene or sequence (pretending to be a sister or a
fiancée), sometimes as the whole premise of the story: While You Were Sleeping, Tootsie.

GETTING TO KNOW
YOU

I don’t have to
explain this one, do I? It’s the first time the hero and heroine let down their
respective guards and start to spill personal information. It’s very often done
very badly, as an information dump.

COUPLE FORCED TO
PRETEND THEY’RE MARRIED

A staple of
romantic comedy; it can be a scene, as in Leap
Year where Anna and Declan must pretend to be married in order to get a
room for the night at a bed & breakfast owned by religiously conservative
proprietors, or it can be the whole premise of the story: whether it’s to get
an inheritance or some other large chunk of money (What Happens in Vegas), or get a green card (The Proposal, Green Card).

LET’S PRETEND
WE’RE MARRIED

A different kind
of scene, more spontaneous — in which the couple find themselves digging in a
garden or working well together in a kitchen (Leap Year) or one of them talks the other off an emotional ledge
(Sally gently calming Harry down after he explodes in front of their best
friends in When Harry Met Sally), and
we get a glimpse of the well-matched couple they would be.

TICKING CLOCK

A staple of all
genres, often used very unconvincingly, so be careful. Some good examples: In Leap Year, Anna needs to get to Dublin
by Leap Day to propose to her reluctant boyfriend. In The Proposal, Margaret and Andrew have four days to get to know
each other well enough to convincingly pass themselves off as married to a
suspicious INS agent. At the climax of When
Harry Met Sally, Harry is desperate to get to a New Year’s Eve party in
time to kiss Sally at the stroke of midnight, something he utterly failed to do
the year before.

THE BET

Can be a scene,
or a whole premise, in which the hero/ine bets friends that s/he — usually he —
can bed or dump a lover in a certain timeframe (How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days). Or some other bet that leads to a
romantic entanglement (Pygmalion, My Fair
Lady).

EX-SEX

Sometimes the
second time is the charm. Or not. Sweet
Home Alabama, Philadelphia Story, It’s Complicated.

THE MAGICAL DAY
(YEAR, PLACE, HOUR)

The idea that
there is a magical day, or hour, or place, that will lead magically to true
love and/or marriage. Leap Year has a
heroine racing across Ireland in order to propose to her reluctant boyfriend on
Leap Day, when traditionally men are obliged to accept any proposal they
receive. Four Weddings and a Funeral
plays with the idea that a wedding is a magical moment in time in which not
only the bridal couple but anyone in attendance can find true love.

WHY THEM?

This is
appallingly lacking in most love stories: some indicator of why we’re supposed
to want this couple to get together to begin with. I know, love is a hard thing
to define, but please, give us something!
Some common explanations:

This is one of
the most crucial scenes in any romance or romantic subplot, and one that goes a
long way toward explaining WHY THEM? The Dance is a scene in which we see that
two people are perfect for each other: they have the same rhythm, they work
around each other’s flaws, they have the same passion, they complete each
other. One of my favorites is the beautiful scene in Sense and Sensibility in which Edward and Elinor coax Elinor’s
younger sister, Margaret, out from where she has been hiding under the library
table by pretending ignorance of the source of the Nile. We see that Edward and
Elinor are perfectly matched: both intelligent, witty, sensitive, kind, and
off-the-wall. They are at their most charming when they’re together, and we are
totally committed to the relationship by the end of the short scene. So much
more meaningful than “Meet Cute”!

In fact, I’m going to end
right there because THE DANCE is just that important to get right! How about it
–

Can you identify THE DANCE in
Notting Hill? In Groundhog Day? In The
Proposal?

Even better, can you give me
some examples of THE DANCE, maybe in your favorite romantic movie? Extra bonus
points for Youtube links to clips!!

STEALING HOLLYWOODThis new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding sixmore full story breakdowns.